Fujifilm Finepix S8100fd 10MP Digital Camera with 18x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Optical Zoom by FUJIFILM
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Digital camera reviews of Fujifilm Finepix S8100fd 10MP Digital Camera with 18x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Optical Zoom
Digital camera Review: Great Camera!
Summary: 4 Stars
If you don't have the money for an SLR but want something better than a point and shoot, then this is the camera to get. I've had this camera for over a year and have taken absolutely amazing pictures with it. I've taken well over 12,000 shots with the camera, so I know how the camera will perform in certain conditions. I mostly keep it in the manual modes, so I don't have much to say as to how it performs in the automatic modes only that when I used them, the camera produced good shots, nothing special but still good nonetheless.
First the lens and auto focus:
The 18x optical zoom is generous, definitely getting you close to your subject, however you get a bit of lens distortion at the full focal length. You can tell that the picture was taken from a distance Not a bit deal to me, an annoyance to others. Auto focus works well, fairly fast in daylight, but takes a bit longer in low light. An AF assist beam helps quicken the time in low light which can be turned off if you prefer. Manual focus leaves a lot to be desired, its somewhat buried in the menus, uses the zoom control in combination with the exposure button, and is very slow. Most people won't be using the manual focus so its not that big of a deal, especially since the auto focus works so well. You can select different areas to focus on, continuous focusing, and of course the face recognition. I don't often use the face recognition feature, just because its easier and faster for me to point the camera at the person, focus, then move the camera back and take the picture. It is cool however to see the camera find the faces and remove the red eye, if any, after the picture is taken. On a side note, the camera "remembers" the faces so when you go to review a picture that you've taken with face recognition you can press that button again and the camera will zoom in and show just that persons face, press it again and it will cycle through the faces of others if it found those as well. Macro and super macro modes work excellent. The super macro mode opens up a whole different type of photography. You can get extremely close to the subject and see details that you would certainly miss with other cameras
Resolution:
Its ten megapixels, what do you expect? The image size is about 1.5 to 2 megabytes at full resolution, i can fit around 700 pictures on my 2 gig card. Other image sizes are also selectable on the camera if you want to save space. I was a disappointed that I couldn't shoot in raw, but then again this isn't an SLR, so don't expect it to be. One disappointing part of the camera is the noise from higher ISO settings. I don't usually go above ISO 400. ISO 800 is grainy and grows worse as you go higher. Unfortunately, the auto modes will often set at ISO 800, and in burst shooting ISO 800 is the lowest you can set.
Body:
The camera feels well built. The rubber grip makes it easy to hold and feels much nicer than the textured plastic found on other camera models. The camera's not heavy, but not light either. Buttons are easily accessible and are also surrounded with a rubber grip.
Misc:
Video; I consider this a bonus on a camera, cameras are supposed to take pictures, camcorders take video. Video quality is fair. You can't zoom while recording.
Burst shooting; works great, provides a really cool effect, however as mentioned earlier the noisy ISO 800 ruins the details of the group of photos.
Flash; works well, only mentioning it because of how it's activated. The camera can't raise the flash you have to manually raise the flash with a button on the side. I love that it does this because if i want it off i push the flash down and thats it. Other cameras take a few button presses to turn the flash on or off.
Sadly my camera is failing. I've taken it in for repair but it would cost upwards of 300 dollars to fix. The main circuit board is fried as well as a few of the motors that run the lens barrel. Even though I've only had it a year and it's already broke, I still rate it four stars because; one, I've not seen anyone else with this problem, and two, I've used this camera excessively, well beyond that of an average user. The camera would sometimes get warm/hot after taking several hundred pictures in a row. I figure this was what was frying the circuits. Again the average person won't take as many pictures as I do each day so this will most likely not happen to you.
This is a great camera, it's served me well and I'm sure it would serve you well also.
Digital camera Review: Great Machine, but...
Summary: 4 Stars
With the 18x zoom lens, you can do almost everything you want. I have taken couple shots with the 18x, very details, but your hand need to be very steady, even with the stablize function on. This is normal however. The only thing which is weak on this machine is the video, you can't zoom during video is taking. The new Nikon P80 can zoom. Many other brand offer the zooming in video taking like the Panasonic, and canon. Other than that, if you are a part time pro, it is more than enough, face recognization, M, P, S priority, you name it, it has it. Saving picture is a little slow. i haven't printed any pic yet, but will soon. Size and wt is pretty much the same compare to the the Nikon P80, Panasonic, Olympus. these are the only 4 brands having 18x zoom camera.Digital camera Review: Great Performance
Summary: 5 Stars
I have used the camera for few weeks, the result is great. Especially take snapshot for near object and far scenery. It is also very easy to use. There are still many functions I haven't tried yet, but I believe this is a great camera. Of course, great price too.Digital camera Review: Great camera for a mom who wants all the moments captured
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not an expert photographer by any means...I was a frustrated mom who was always missing important moments because my sleek & slim camera that fit into my backpocket would not 1) shoot fast enough to capture the moments, 2) zoom in close-enough, 3) focus fast enough, 4) take pics in the darkest of auditoriums.
I did a little research and in the short while that I've had this camera (2 months), I have found many reasons to love this camera, here a few main ones:
a) The auto feature is truly awesome, as long as you remember to click open the flash - it will use the flash as needed...(drawback - flash doesn't open automatically in auto feature - pro- this is one of the few cameras in this price range that has a built-in flash)
b) It has the most zooming capability for a camera in this price range
c) love the editing features available on the camera - you can crop/edit pics ont he camera itself
d) it has a sports feature that takes like 25-30 pics every 5 seconds (or something like that)....I've tested it and have 60 shots of my daughter jumping up and downs and it captured every strand of her hair flying in mid-air
e) I took pics in a pitch dark room that only had black lights with people dancing and the pics came out looking like all the lights in the room were on and people were posing for the pics
f) I only bought the SD memory card and I can take like 400-500 pics before I have to worry about running out of space (and you can still take the card out after it's full and still take quite a few more pics on the camera's basic memory).
g) it uses regular batteries - nothign is more infuriating than you're camera running out of battery juice and you can't find replacement batteries at the local grocery/pharmacy store when you're on vacation.
The main drawbacks to this camera that I noticed are:
a) there is no Fuji bag that fits this camera...you will have to get your own generic camera bag (don't understand why Fuji just doesn't make one to come with it)
b) It's not sleek and compact (for those potential buyers who are looking for that)....for moms this is not really a problem because generally your purse is the "family purse" where everyone's belongings finds its way into your bag/purse....this is actually one of the mid-range in weight for cameras that are comparable to its features
c) none of the local stores carry this model(Circuit City/Best Buy/Frys/Ritz Camera/etc)to play around with prior to purchasing - I was able to only purchsae it from Amazon - I had to guess when comparing to other models in the store in terms of size/weight/feature capabilities/etc.
I've already made some amazing photobooks from the pics that I've taken from this camera.
Digital camera Review: Great camera for someone who just wants great pictures
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had my camera for about a month. I am not a photo hobbyist just want good pictures. I use it on 10MP mostly but can take low resolution frames for posting on the internet. The the 18X zoom really makes it easy to use as I don't have to move around a lot to frame my pictures. I can also take macro and super macro pictures which is great when I am trying to explain something to someone on the net and I can take a cloe up picture and send it to them. The 4 AA batteries is also great because sometimes my rechargables run out and all I have to do is put in regular alkaline batteries and I am back to taking great pictures. The feature of digital screen or viewfinder is great for preserving the batteries and I really like that feature. The review pictures after you have taken them is easy to initiate and recover from to be back to taking more pictures. I am using a 4G sd card and at 10MP I can shoot 1500+ frames before I have to download. I have not used the video feature yet but I look forward to it being as great as the rest of the camera